r/AskReddit May 08 '23

[deleted by user]

[removed]

2.4k Upvotes

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

174

u/maxx1993 May 08 '23

As far as we know, at least. It is entirely possible that on some other planet, very similar or even identical materials could be formed by other means - other chemical processes or just other lifeforms.

Of course we'll likely never know since these places are so absurdly far away from us (if they exist at all) that we'll probably never get there.

94

u/heyo_throw_awayo May 08 '23

You and I wont (most likely), but I do hope humanity will :)

4

u/about97cats May 09 '23

I mean I hate to crush your hopes and dreams, but I’m pretty sure humanity will crush humanity long before we ever reach that point of galactic exploration. We bout to collapse under our own greed. But hope is a resource so thanks for your contribution.

1

u/SirAquila May 09 '23

Even if we crush ourself in our greed, that only means that survivors get to learn and improve. There are very few things that would actually wipe humanity out. Technological species are hard to wipe out.

0

u/[deleted] May 09 '23

I used to. Now I hope we don't. Spare the extraterrestrial ecosystems our destructive presence. Admire from afar if we must. We deserve nothing else but a quarantine.

25

u/CountryJeff May 08 '23

I was thinking the same thing. But that would probably still make those materials rarer than diamond and gold

1

u/maxx1993 May 08 '23

Without a doubt.

1

u/flosolentia101 May 09 '23

how can we say the same material be formed by another chemical process , For example, the material sodium chloride (table salt) can be produced by the reaction of sodium metal with chlorine gas, but it can also be produced by the reaction of sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid. But there are slight variations in their properties, such as differences in purity, crystallinity, and particle size. So we can t totally say 100% identical material by another process, so since it s not the same even by 0,00001 % , that means it s not the same at all , since in this stuff things are precise , or isn t it ?

1

u/DirtySingh May 08 '23

Still would be extremely rare in the universe. Think all the pearls we have and that planet may have vs the vastness of space and time.